The Dilemma

Engineers, scientists and business professionals are now in cubicles and labs scattered all over San Diego. They help make up the backbone of the electronic, telecommunications, software, biotechnology and bio-medical companies that are shaping San Diego's economic future. These high tech pros are not only changing, improving, and remaking San Diego, but are impacting the entire high-tech business world. Many speak a strange and hard-to-decipher dialect full of niche-driven words, and acronyms and known to their colleagues as shop talk. Outside of their immediate environment, their language is known only as geek-speak.

High-tech engineers and business professionals are of many disciplines and their subject matter is as infinite as the human imagination. We know they are doing wondrous things. Our wireless phones can perform more functions every day. Precision munitions, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and software advances are transforming warfare. Bioengineers are finding new cures for old diseases and devising ways to control cellular functions. The list is endless but the problem of communicating these advances remains.

How do we bridge the gap between "them" and "us?" How do we understand engineering innovations and medical breakthroughs? How do we take advantage of all the latest software developments, the newest tech products, and the latest and greatest ground-breaking services? That job in large part goes to the technical writer who is charged with organizing, analyzing, researching, clarifying, and often simplifying technical data, cryptic jargon and various forms of technical and business communication.

The Solution

From manufacturing to marketing, and from computers to biotech, nearly every industry depends on technical writers to translate and communicate with their consumer groups. These writers produce technical or business-oriented material such as:

• Consumer-oriented or internal reports


• User manuals


• Technical specifications


• Sales materials


• White papers


• Proposals


• Online help systems


• Web site content

Companies are now well aware that good end-user documentation can lead to higher customer satisfaction and is one of the main ways that their image is presented to the customer during the life of the product. But technical communication is not always about communicating between engineers and product users. Often times other business professionals communicate with one another with the help of technical writing.

• Sales teams are able to show prospects that their documentation meets the user's requirements and that if users get stuck, online user assistance will enable them to get unstuck quickly and easily.


• Training personnel can focus on the key points and these will be reinforced after the training by the Help System.


• Software developers get a user's perspective on how easy it is to use the software, and what concepts and processes are difficult to understand.


• Technical support personnel use technical communication to reduce calls to the support desk by including commonly asked support questions in the Help System.

Technical communicators must interact and adapt to the different types of users, according to their requirements. They must be able to deliver information in many different forms:

• Paper manuals


• Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF) files


• Help files


• Web pages

Taking advantage of the various media requires careful management and in-depth knowledge of the various formats. Most technical writers have knowledge of various software programs such as Microsoft® Word, Adobe® FrameMaker® RoboHelp® and photo editing software such as Adobe® Photoshop®.

The History

In his book "Pocket Guide to Technical Writing," William Pfeiffer says, "The term technical writing includes all written communication done on the job. It originally referred only to writing done in fields of technology, engineering, and science, but it has come to mean writing done in all professions and organizations."

As the world becomes more technical, there are a number of signs that the need for technical writing is growing. The number of U.S. colleges and universities that offer specific degrees in technical communication has jumped to over 160.

The Society for Technical Communication (STC), a professional organization for technical communicators with over 25,000 members, has seen its membership rise over 55 percent since 1990, according to an article in U.S. News and World Report.

The history of technical writing in the U.S. is, of course, tied to the history of technology and the growth of engineering. The Morrill Act 1862 and 1877 established land grant agricultural and mechanical colleges, which led to specialized curriculum, such as engineering. Equally important, the Civil War, which called attention to field engineers and technical needs, improved the status of technical fields. Finally, the Industrial Revolution led to specialization and the realization that engineering advances could lead to an economic revolution. The Sputnik and American space programs were other boosts to technology and engineering vitality. Within this context engineering schools began to flourish. Eventually, the field of technical writing gained acceptance and importance as a means of communicating this body of information to consumers and among technicians.

The Future

Everyone has to be careful out there in the ever-changing, feature-infested, world of high technology. Few people know about ultrasonic level gauges, linear motion parts, or pressure transducers. And not many of us can explain how digital cameras work, how nickel-cadmium batteries are recharged, or how laser scanners scan. Most of us just want to know how a new product or service will make our lives easier or more fun, along with the basics of how to make it work.

In a world of rapid technological development, people are constantly falling behind and becoming technologically illiterate. Each project that a technical writer encounters has its own interpersonal, ethical, legal, and cultural demands. That's why today's professional tech writer is not only a fluent communicator, but also a discriminating consumer of information, skilled in the methods of inquiry, retrieval, evaluation, and interpretation necessary for the communication of information from one audience to another.

In fact, companies have a vested interest in finding effective ways to help current or potential customers understand the advantages or the operation of their technological products and services. A growing number of technical communicators are hard at work to ensure that understanding, enhance acceptance, and boost sales as they fill in the gaps and smooth out the bumps on the "geek speak" street that leads from "them," the engineers and scientists, to "us," the consumers.

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